By Thomas Grip, Creative director
This is one of my earliest memories. Eons ago, when I was about 5, my dad took me with him to his work, a department store. He then proceeded to dump me in the electronics department.
Nowadays you can find game test booths everywhere, but back in the day this was definitely not the case. Instead every single item was locked inside a glass cupboard. Usually these cupboards remained locked unless you bought something… but that day was different. Tony, my dad’s co-worker, let me try out a game.
As I trembled with the excitement of a 5-year-old boy, he jangled his keys, and took out the showcase version of a grey box called the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Ice Climber for the NES was my first video game experience, and from that moment I was hooked.
Since that watershed moment, Nintendo games have always had a special place in my heart. Super Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Battle Toads, Blaster Master and many others were all a part of my childhood magic. The plastic feel of the controller, the chunky cartridges, and instant-booting games still evoke fuzzy feelings in me.
Because of these magical childhood memories, and how video games were perceived back in the day, Nintendo has always had a certain mysterious feel to it – like an enchanted factory in a far-away country, creating games through some sort of wizardry.
When I started making games myself, some 20 years back, I never thought the hobby would evolve into anything bigger. It felt highly unlikely that people would want to buy anything I produced. But, eventually, what started as a hobby turned into a job. That felt so surreal. There I was, with my stupid hobby, except it was suddenly a source of income to me. Game development still felt like that enchanted factory, full of people who knew a lot more than me with tech I couldn’t possibly afford to have. But it was real, as I came to realize over time.
Yet consoles, and especially Nintendo, retained a very illusory feel. While I released my games on Steam and similar stores, the birthplace of my childhood magic felt far off.
That’s why it’s so special to announce the following:
AMNESIA: COLLECTION IS NOW OUT ON THE NINTENDO SWITCH
If the 5-year-old me heard about this, he would never believe me.
But this is by no means the end of a journey for me – quite the opposite! It’s thrilling to think just how far the company has come, and it makes me super excited for what the future will hold.
Well, I have to admit it's a pretty good trailer. A bit odd for something as horrific as this, but also very true. And the ending actually made me chuckle.
ReplyDeleteYou better should make a VR port. This would increase the level of immersion a lot!!! But how can a Switch console be immersive? This is for small fun-games, but not for a real big thing like Amnesia.
ReplyDeleteVR would be not that hard to do in first-person. And the object interaction would also work great when opening doors or move boxes with your real hands. This would be a major improvement that push Amnesia even more on top of best possible immersion and that automatically means even more effective horror.
In a near future games will be VR exclusive and nobody would ever play a non-VR game on a classical flat 2D monitor. VR is the next dimension of gaming, so bring all your games into this new dimension would keep them available for the future generations of people. Otherwise games from old days may me forgotten forever. Even when VR is still in child shoes, the future would bring 8K resolution per eye and an overall improved experience. So please make Amnesia and SOMA for VR to have this games ready for the next mainstream technology.
ReplyDeleteAnd ... does the game sell well on the Switch?
ReplyDelete